Daria Davitti

On the same day that a top UN official bravely called on Australia to end the harmful practice of... more On the same day that a top UN official bravely called on Australia to end the harmful practice of processing asylum applications offshore in Papua New Guinea and Nauru, one of his colleagues announced his support for another proposed offshoring system – this time to prevent migrants reaching the EU. Journey stops here: African migrants rescued by the Libyan coastguard.

Offshore Policies and Complicity in Current EU Policies : Part 1

Away from the spotlight: Foreign investment in the Afghan extractive sector and the state’s duty to protect the right to water

International Economic Law and COVID-19

Biopolitical Borders and the State of Exception in the European Migration ‘Crisis’

European Journal of International Law

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Shirking Responsibilities: Receiving Countries and the Structural Causes of Conflict-Related Child Trafficking

Human Trafficking in Europe, 2010

This chapter explores the underlying structural causes of conflict-related child trafficking, foc... more This chapter explores the underlying structural causes of conflict-related child trafficking, focusing on the responsibilities borne by so-called ‘destination’ countries in triggering, contributing to and exacerbating this phenomenon. This analysis of the root causes of child trafficking, as it manifests itself in and from conflict/post-conflict countries, is the result of criticism of the current rights discourse around this phenomenon, which tends to focus on reactive, short-term solutions when tackling child trafficking. This approach, although employing rights-language, usually tends to refer only to structural root causes when describing the phenomenon, avoiding the uncomfortable issue of how such causes might be addressed.

The Rise of Private Military and Security Companies in EU Migration Policies: Implications Under the UNGP

This article examines the involvement of Private Military and Security Companies (PMSC) in both s... more This article examines the involvement of Private Military and Security Companies (PMSC) in both shaping and implementing the European Agenda on Migration (European Agenda), launched by the European Union in May 2015. The migration policies which have since been adopted have increasingly enabled the outsourcing to private security contractors of various border control operations, including those related to forced returns, administrative detention and security services for the Italian and Greek ‘hotspots’. The article argues that PMSC frame, shape and entrench militarized responses in the European Agenda. It also contends that the current context of the European refugee ‘crisis’ meets the conditions of a high-risk context, as understood within the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGP). This re-definition of the refugee ‘crisis’ as a high-risk context, in turn, enables the identification of heightened human rights obligations of home states and responsib...

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Proportionality and Human Rights Protection in International Investment Arbitration: What’s Left Hanging in the Balance?

Nordic Journal of International Law

This article focuses on the proportionality analysis carried out by international investment trib... more This article focuses on the proportionality analysis carried out by international investment tribunals when the protection of foreign investment adversely impacts the protection of human rights. International investment arbitrators are increasingly called to adjudicate awards which require a ‘balancing’ between the so-called rights of investors, protected as they are by relevant international investment agreements (iia), and the rights of third parties affected by foreign investment. Such balancing often entails, at its core, a controversial juxtaposition between investment protections and human rights protections. In this article, I argue that a balancing between investors’ rights and human rights is neither possible nor desirable. This argument is crucial to demystify existing assumptions surrounding the use of balancing and proportionality in international investment arbitration as a way of successfully reconciling competing interests as well as conflicting protection obligations...

Investment and Human Rights in Armed Conflict

Business and Human Rights in the UN Special Procedures System

Book chapter

Refining the Protect, Respect and Remedy Framework for Business and Human Rights and its Guiding Principles

Human Rights Law Review, 2016

Beyond the Governance Gap: Accountability in Privatized Migration Control

German Law Journal - vol 21(3), 2020

This Article focuses on the accountability challenges raised by the increased involvement of Priv... more This Article focuses on the accountability challenges raised by the increased involvement of Private Military and Security Companies ("PMSC") in migration control. I argue that migration control activities outsourced to PMSC can be classified as high-risk operations for the purposes of the application of relevant business and human rights standards. This reclassification of migration control activities as high-risk business operations, in turn, has two significant implications in terms of establishing accountability for PMSC's wrongful conduct. First, it acknowledges that the privatization of migration control, especially within the context of continued containment and deterrence trends, entails a high risk of human rights abuses to which PMSC may contribute, both directly and indirectly. Second, this reclassification enables us to identify heightened obligations vested upon the home state of a PMSC, as well as the heightened responsibility of PMSC themselves. The article also examines what these heightened obligations and responsibilities entail.

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1917 AND ITS IMPLICATIONS FOR THE LAW OF EXPROPRIATION

K Greenman, A Orford, A Saunders, N Tzouvala (eds), Revolutions in International Law: The Legacies of 1917 (Cambridge University Press), 2019

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Away from the spotlight Foreign investment in Afghan extractives

J Faundez and C Tan (eds), International Law, Natural Resources and Sustainable Development (Edward Elgar,now also in paperback), 2017

With its focus on Afghanistan, this chapter considers the practical dimension of the relationship... more With its focus on Afghanistan, this chapter considers the practical dimension of the relationship between investment and human rights. It discusses the protection of the right to water in Afghanistan within the context of the country’s booming extractive sector, in order to outline how conflict areas represent a worst-case scenario for the practical implementation of both investment and human rights protections. In order to identify ways to harness investment for sustainable development, the chapter considers the relevance of the United Nations (UN) Frame- work and Guiding Principles for Business and Human Rights (respec- tively, the Framework and the GPs; GPs, A/HRC/17/31, 2011: 10–11), as developed by the former UN Special Representative of the Secretary General (SRSG), Professor John Ruggie. The Framework consists of three complementary pillars: the state duty to protect against human rights abuses by third parties, including business; the corporate respons- ibility to respect human rights; and the availability of effective remedies (Framework, A/HRC/8/5, 2008). According to the commentary to GP 7, in conflict contexts home states ‘should review whether their policies, legislation, regulations and enforcement measures effectively address this heightened risk, including through provisions for human rights due diligence by business. Where they identify gaps, States should take appropriate steps to address them’ (A/HRC/17/31, 2011: 11). The com- mentary does not exclude the possibility for home states to introduce ‘civil, administrative or criminal liability for enterprises domiciled or operating in their territory and/or jurisdiction’ (ibid). Taking the position of the commentary as a starting point for further analysis, this chapter focuses on the extraterritorial dimension of the obligations enshrined in pillar one of the Framework, and outlines the home state’s duty (rather than the possibility) to protect human rights when investors operate in conflict contexts.

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Biopolitical Borders and the State of Exception in the European Migration 'Crisis'

European Journal of International Law, 2019

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Article 4 UDHR and The Prohibition against Slavery: A Critical Look at Contemporary Slavery in Company Operations and Supply Chains

The 70th anniversary of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) is an appropriate t... more The 70th anniversary of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) is an appropriate time to reflect on the present-day significance of the UDHR and, for the purposes of this chapter, of the prohibition against slavery enshrined in its Article 4. This chapter embarks in this reflection by focusing specifically on contemporary slavery in company operations and supply chains, as they offer an emblematic example not only of the way in which the forms of exploitation prohibited by Article 4 continue to this day, but also of how these abuses both enable and maintain a lucrative and long-standing business model which remains largely unchallenged. To better understand the persistence of slavery in company operations and supply chains, this contribution examines current attempts by the Business and Human Rights (BHR) movement to tackle this specific aspect of slavery. In doing so the chapter encourages a broader critical reflection on the apolitical positioning of the BHR discourse and its implications in reproducing an enabling environment in which slavery thrives, despite the numerous rhetorical commitments to combat it. This chapter posits that one of the reasons why contemporary slavery remains so pervasive and resilient across company operations and supply chains is precisely the political ‘neutrality’ which envelops the contextual analyses and solutions offered to tackle it, not least within the BHR movement.

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Gradations of Externalisation: Is the EU Sailing towards Offshoring Asylum Protection?

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Business actors in Western Sahara

The Legality of Economic Activities in Occupied Territories